Recently in “Galleries”

This exciting "selling exhibition," a joint venture between Sotheby's UK, Studley Castle, and Carpenters Workshop Gallery showcases a series of one-off and limited edition pieces by leading international contemporary designers and artists. The works are utilitarian pieces that can work as functional objects or pieces that can be appreciated as works of art with "profound aesthetic appeal." 

According to Alexander Planton & Simon Stock, Sotheby's curators of the Sudeley exhibition "Contemporary design is an area of the international art market that ha been making waves in recent years and the Sudeley show will present works by some of the boldest and most visionary talents in the field of design today."

Carpenters Workshop in London, one of the premier galleries featuring contemporary design, is know for encouraging up-and-coming young artists, as well as presenting extraordinary works from established artists such as Ron Arad, Marteen bas, Wendell Castle. This joint venture is the latest project that the gallery is involved in "to promote the careers and foster the careers of contemporary designers through exhibiting unique and limited-edition works in solo and group exhibitions and at international art and design fairs. It also aims to expose the public to the latest design aesthetic, enriching and enlightening the contemporary design landscape and discourse."

Sudeley Castle is located in the Cotswold Hills in Gloucestershire. It was the royal household of Queen Katherine Parr during Tudor times. It is currently the home of Lady Ashcombe and the Dent-Brocklehurst family, who are dedicated to the restoration of the castle and it's gardens, with a particular emphasis on environmental sustainability. Mollie Dent-Brocklehurst has presented several exhibitions at the castle and says of this installation ..... "A thousand years of history at Sudeley represents a thousand years of design and creation and it is wonderful to be presenting such a current and visually exciting exhibition that is in such striking contrast to the historic castle itself."

Low-tech materials meet traditional craft skills, in Dutch designer Tord Boontje's innovative "tatted" raffia lighting pieces exhibited at Marsden Woo Gallery, London. "The Lacemaker," this installation of Boontje's latest works, rethinks our traditional concept of what lace is. According to this world renowned designer, also the Head of Design products at the Royal College of Art, "With lace, all the value is invested in the labour and so it seemed a good idea to start working with cheap materials ... but also, by changing the material you can change the references." In addition to the lighting pieces, the exhibition has a collection of other "lace" works ...... a black webbed sofa, lace screens, a raffia trimmed mirror, a raffia dress, and a selection of jewlery.

This collection is inspired by Boontje's participation in an exhibition at the University of Philadelphia's Design Center, "Lace in Transition." He spent three days immersed in the Center's archives, studying the collection of the Quaker Lace Company, resulting in a unique collection of his own designs.

 

Internationally known, Cuban-born interior designer and author Vicente Wolf can be a big help!!!! His 3000 sq. foot Manhattan loft features VW HOME, an internationally sourced selection of furniture, lighting, & accessories all reflecting Vicente's style ........ and includes a series of "collections of collections"!!!! 

 

For over 15 years, I have headed from Heathrow Airport, to my hotel to check-in, then to a tiny street in Knightsbridge ....... home to my friend Maureen Doherty's wonderful shop!!!  Maureen, the original muse to Issey Miyake, has created a unique, one-off shopping experience that is almost a "trade secret"!!!!  It is so special, that there is a long list of fashion-folk who collect her treasures (I ran into Bruce Weber there this week!!!), and have asked her to either open a shop in NYC or to sell her things in our stores ...... the answer is always NO!!! I have found over the years that Maureen rarely changes her mind, no matter how often you ask ...... whether me, Donna Karan, or Dawn Mello!!!!

This unique English store is a white-washed former stable with the most fabulous original details ..... giant white barn doors, rambling uneven cobblestone floors, white wooden slab shelves, and a vintage oak dinning table with classic Thonet chairs ..... all creating the perfect ambience for Maureen to curate her own fabulous clothing-art installation!!! The store is home to the most fantastic collection of  "white  everything" ....shirts, dresses, pants, jackets etc ....... always accented with natural, black, grey, and a touch of denim!!!! And every once in a while, color pops up ever-so-slightly ...... this trip there were two green shades and a tiny touch of yellow!!!

I think of Maureen as the master of the "zen" of dresing ..... non-trendy or fashiony, comfortable and easy, unrestricted, relaxed, and always made with natural fibers ....... everything is meant to be layered, loose, and unconstructed!!! Of course, in the world of egg, nothing ever goes out of style .... NEVER!!!! These clothes are for "trendy fashionista's," rather they are meant for "clothing collectors"!!!! 

Because I am in London so often, I am lucky enough to add to my "egg collection" several times a year, always white shirts, maybe a coat or sweater or both .......  and of course, great accessories; scarves, jewelry, hats ..... anything goes!!! I have absolutely no control at eggl!!! So what, nothing ever goes out of fashion ...... in fact, in April, Maureen asked to borrow a "vinatge egg" coat that I was wearing, she wanted to re-invent it for next season!!! Of course, I left it for her and she gave me one of her own divine coats to wear in Milan ..... actually it was a coat that I'm sorry I didn't buy, way back when!!!!! 

MOVING STORIES I, II, III   MATTHEW RAW

TRéSOR DéCOUVERT   AMY JAYNE HUGHES

Louise Bourgeois (1911 - 2010) has been an incredible force in the art world for over 70 years. She was "one of a kind," unique, an individual ....... her work was that of a woman "searching" her life. Nothing was off-limits  ..... she delved into every crevice of her being. She subjected her insides and outsides to public scrutiny, and was fearless in her exploration of self. She didn't care what critics had to say, she worked outside the boundaries of being a woman ..... she made feminism a part of her process. She lived "between two worlds, within two languages ..... male and female, order and chaos." Working endlessly she created an enormous body of work that will be with us forever.

I would like to share one of the last pieces she made for her French gallery, Galerie Piece Unique. Owned by my friends, Marussa Gravagnuolo  & Christine Lahoud, I was lucky enough to see this work in Paris and longed to live with it!!!!!

The piece has a fabulous history ..... the original piece of cloth, with the initials LB was found by Marussa & Christine during their travels. The initialed piece of antique linen appeared to be a sign and was meant for only one person!!! They lovingly hand-carried the piece to New York to Louise, and she promised to make a unique work to be shown at the gallery. 

In her 98th year, Self Portrait (2009) was presented at the gallery. Bourgeois created a clock of 24 hours, representing her life. The hands of the clock stand a 19h11 - the year of her birth. The 24 images placed at each hour reveal her history .... a self-portrait of memories ..... childhood, couple, maternity and family, and the themes of her art, are all etched in dry point and sewn to the linen. 

One of the fantastic things about getting stuck in Milan, while the Icelandic volcano spewed ash, was getting to visit two of the four Milanese House Museums, homes with a unique combination of period architecture and antiques, with the addition of contemporary design ...... old and new working in tandem, showing how contemporary furniture and objects belong everywhere!!!!

I was particularly taken with the Villa Necchi Campiglio, a residence built in the 1930's, designed by architect Piero Portaluppi. The interiors were created by a collection of important Italian designers and decorators of the period, including Albini-Palanti, Buzzi, Marelli, and Ulrich. After the war, an extensive collection of antique furniture was added. 

Artek founded in 1935 and based in Finland, is one of the most innovative contributors to modern design. They presented several new pieces in Milan at Spazio Rosanna Orlandi, including "Dress the Chair," a Missoni upholstered version of Armchair 400 by Alvar Aalto (see blog 4/22/10) and a modular shelving unit from Naoto Fukasawa.   

In addition, they exhibited SEDIA 1, designed by Enzo Mari in 1974 as part of the thought-provoking project "Autoprogettazione." Mari was a designer, thinker, and provocateur whose goal was "to mass produce objects without compromising his belief that the outcome should always be beautiful to look at and feel while being functional." He created over 200 objects and this is the first piece that is being produced by Artek. The chair comes in a box containing a  precut set of pine boards, nails, and instructions for it's creation. According to Mari, "Design is always education."

Amy Sillman's paintings at Sikkema Jenkins & Co. are extraordinary!!!! I am awed by the incredible use of color, gesture, and composition in each work ...... they are eye-candy and I want to crawl into them and wander around!!! Gallery owner Brent Sikkema told me that Amy belongs to an informal reading group of Williamsburg artists, and that they were reading about color theory, which influenced these paintings. Undoubtedly!!!!

In addition to the paintings, there are two sublime suites of drawings, one beginning with a simple drawing of a light bulb which "transforms into a flashlight, which turns into s medium for self-reflective investigation." The shown titled Transformer (...or, how many lightbulbs does it take to change a painting) runs until May 15th .

Italian designer, Paola Navone's fabulous creation, "Theatrical Creations in Tones of Blue" was designed for Venetian glass company Barovier & Toso for their installation at the Milan Fair at  Zona Tortona. The installation is a series of rooms, featuring vignettes or scenes, created by stunning glass pieces ....... all in the "Yves Klein Blue."  Each unique design incorporates light, some form of repetition ....... and is magical on it's own, but as an installation it is extraordinary!!! 

Navone says, "I find inspiration in most thing. It's a mental attitude. If you look and touch you can always find something interesting-a shape,a colour, a texture. It's a 24 hour exercise to capture all of these elements."

I am awed by Paola Navone ......... not only is she amazingly talented, but she is incredibly prolific!!!! In the past two weeks I have seen three works by Navone ........ this installation, and an incredible installation at Few & Far in London ( to be featured next week!!) and a fantasy sculpture that is part of the exhibition Tra le Briccole di Venezia  at the Triennale Design Museum in Milan. This piece is so stunning that I am also writing about it tomorrow as a separate piece!!!!

Dutch designer Piet Hein Eek presented these fabulous fixtures at Spazio Rosanna Orlandi in Milan this week. The fixtures continue his pursuit of "recycling & reviving" ....... he took a collection of vintage glass lighting parts and created stunning chandeliers!!! The lamps sit inside metals rods and are strung together, creating various circular and vertical fixtures. 

Pieke Bergmans, "Light Bulb Installation" each unique

Thomas Lemut, "Table Basse" table created from 15 different metals, unique

Max Lamb, yellow polystyrene tables coated in rubber, unique

Phillip Maloun, "Rocco" recliner in powder coated steel and nylon, edition of 4

Stephen Johnson, assorted brass plated found-object sculptures, unique

Studio Glithero, "Les French Family" 10 paper wrapped cabinets on 

Valerio Capo and Sam Pratt, owners of the Gallery Fumi, have put together a collection of work from some of the finest, emerging & established designers in the contemporary design world. The gallery, opened in early 2008, is a well-lite, two story, bare-brick walled space that "plays nicely" with the work that is exhibited!!!! Included in the well-curated collection is furniture, lighting, accessories, and artworks.

For these gallerists, design is the "art-form" they have chosen to collect ..... and they have  selected to exhibit the work of designer's, whose pieces they would have in their own personal collection. They commission pieces exclusively for the gallery, both unique works and limited editions. The result of their selection is a very well edited collection of interesting, innovative, and exciting designs. Included in the galleries list of international artists is Max Lamb, Raw Edges, Nacho Carbonell, Paul Kelley, Kranen/Gille Studio, and Federico Uribe. In addition, they have worked with both the Royal College of Art in London and ECAL in Lausanne, Switzerland on a project, An Object Which Enables Reflection, where students competed with each other to rethink the mirror. The project was judged by a panel of "design experts" and the winning prototypes were exhibited at the gallery. 

Valerio and Sam are not trapped by "old think," they have no preconceived ideas, and are creative in their exploration of the concept of a gallery. They are working from the heart, fearlessly ....... showing innovative, new design in a very difficult financial environment. I applaud their enthusiasm, creativity, and taste!!!!!